For a book I'm working on having to do with holidays, I realized at the last minute that I had nothing that related to Halloween. Even grown-up Islanders seem to love this holiday, decorating their offices, gifting friends and co-workers with treats, some even dressing up at work.
I began going through old cookbooks, looking for something to inspire me. In a stack of recipes and clippings that I inherited recently, I found a sheet of four 5-by-7 card-size recipes and there was a carrot cookie contributed by Mae Mendes. I have no idea where this came from or who Mae Mendes is, but the color of carrots made me think of pumpkins, and I wondered how the cookie would work with kabocha pumpkin, spices (there were none in the recipe) and orange flavoring in the plain glaze called for. So I tweaked it, tried it and everyone who's tasted these easy cookies (I've made two batches, taking one to a class I taught and one to the office) exclaimed. And my husband made the happy noise. So that settled it; it's in the book.
(This, by the way, is an example of how you can use another recipe for inspiration without flat stealing it: Make at least three important changes to the recipe and give credit to the original source.)
I'll begin with the procedure for microwaving kabocha (but if you want to, you can use canned pumpkin): Microwave a whole, 1-pound kabocha pumpkin on high for 8 minutes. Wearing oven mitts, turn pumpkin over and microwave a further 8 minutes. Again, wearing oven mitts, remove pumpkin and allow to cool. Cut in half, scrape out seeds and strings, scoop out pumpkin and mash or process in food processor until smooth.
I was really impressed with this icing: It hardens in minutes, growing so firm you can stack the cookies without them sticking to each other. You could alter the flavors to suit your taste for other uses. For example: Make a lemon cookie, adding lemon zest to the batter and to the glaze.
KABOCHA COOKIES
For the cookie batter:
For the icing:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking pan with kitchen parchment. In a mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, scraping in between. Add mashed pumpkin, spices, lemon juice and vanilla and mix well. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Mix into butter-sugar mixture. Fold in raisins and nuts. Drop by teaspoonful onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until tops are golden and firm. While the cookies are still warm, brush with glaze (recipe follows).
To make glaze: In a bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter and vanilla and add enough orange juice to give it a good spreading consistency. Beat until fluffy, adding orange zest toward the end of the beating time.
Makes about 36 cookies.
* You can use regular raisins or even sweetened dried cranberries (in fact, I like cranberries best, they serve as a tart foil to the sweet pumpkin and glaze).
** I have used both walnuts and pecans and prefer pecans, but it's your choice — almonds or mac nuts also would work.
Send recipes and queries to Wanda A. Adams, Food Editor, Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Fax: 525-8055. E-mail: wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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